My. Oh. My.
Jarle Bernhoft is a talented vocalist from Oslo, Norway with a swinging funkalicious 2008 debut album called Ceramik City Chronicles which, as far as I can tell, is unavailable for purchase. Anywhere. At. All.
This guy can do it all, people: sing, dance, play all the instruments, and most importantly, he's really good at looking sexy for the ladies.
Here's the video of Jarle that caught my attention. He's a one-man-band performing Ever Since. And Jarle, if you're reading this, I'm dying to own your tuneage. Hook. Me. UP!
The film Flame & Citron (Flammen og Citronen) is the based on the true story of two Danish resistance fighters who liquidate Nazi informers during World War II. The ever-amazing Mads Mikkelsen plays Citronen (Citron or Lemon) to Thure Lindhardt's Flammen (Flame), most recently seen in the love-it-or-hate-it movie Dan Brown/Tom Hanks/Ron Howard film Angels & Demons.
I'm not sure you're aware of this, but the Danes are under the uneasy impression that the world thinks they've somehow failed to do enough to fight evil Nazism during WWII. Crazy, Danes. I have a theory about this.
Danes are the epitome of stoicism. They are creative, sensitive, deep-thinking, highly educated, genetically beautiful creatures with a tendency to appear unemotional in times when everyone else is freaking the hell out. Appearances can be deceiving: this logic in tempering their emotionality, essentially the art of quiet disconnect, is what provides the so-inclined stoic a clear mind for judgment and a inner calm. And it's this standoffish nature of the Danish culture that makes them feel that maybe this movie will clear things up, explain away any residual doubts about Denmark's resistance to Hitler's Secret Service.
To the Danes I say this:
So sweet of you to make this film to share your true story. We all know you're not Nazi sympathizers, in fact spending more than 45 million kroner -- a blockbuster sum -- to convince us of this is heartening. Thanks! It's a brutally lovely flick! Plus Mads is in it, and I'll watch that boy in anything at all. ANYTHING. AT. ALL. But please understand that we love your unaffected, surface-cold temperaments and disturbingly talented (albeit oft cheesy and indifferent) culture. We do. It's what makes the Danes, you know...Danish.
So, embrace your genetically ingrained shoulder-shrugging attitude and please, and please do continue to exploit it in great films, music, literature, and art. It's who you are, and we love you for it. Also, make sure Mads Mikkelsen is featured as much as possible. In advance, tak!
Wanna know when you're coming home.
You never seem to know when to stop
I never know when you'll return
I'm in love with a robot
In the night, call you up and
Wanna know when you're coming home
Don't deny me, call me back
I'm so alone
In the night, wait up for you
Even though you don't want me to
Go to bed, leave the lights on
What's the use
So you want to understand me
You just see what you want to see
There's no way I can help you out
You don't know what it's all about
Fell asleep again in front of MTV
God, I'm down at the bottom
No one's singing songs for me
I can't wait for tomorrow
When you're gone and rain starts falling
I just sit here by the phone
Don't deny me, call me back
I'm so alone
A melody that illuminates that dark place left in winter's Scandinavia.
Blue Foundation's haunting "Shine" is featured in this movie preview for the film Angel's Gone. This is the film adaption of playwright Anthony Neilson’s 1991 work Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper, the fictional story of the making of the life of a serial killer, told from the point of view of his beautiful Defense Attorney.
Stuck in minor key
Then pale monotony
Holds me down
But luckily
You are so dear to me
In your charity
I go home
I’m so sorry
This melancholy
Holds me down
But luckily
You are so dear to me
In your charity
I go home
Swedish sisters Klara & Johanna Söderberg from Stockholm, Sweden play together as First Aid Kit. The produce folksy, harmonized acoustic loveliness. Young and so talented, I hope to hear much more from them. Here is a great original tune sung in their native woods:
Man, I lurve these guys. They meet all my requirements for being groupie-worthy:
- Foreign
- Dreamy
- Lyrically deep
Archive has been around (in one form or another) since 1994 (according to wikipedia.com who would NEVER lie to me). They make sweet electronic sounds that range from moody and retrospective to fucking pissed off. Kinda like me. I lurve that, too.
Here they playing live at the Foire du Trône (hope your French ain't rusty) in Paris April 14, 2006. The Foire du Trône is a very popular fair that, according to the google translator, is about Thrones and gingerbread. I think.
The video. Go watch it:
It hurts to feel
It hurts to hear
It hurts to face it
It hurts to hide
It hurts to touch
It hurts to wake up
It hurts to remember
It hurts to hold on
Turn my head
The hurt's relentless
The hurt of emptiness
The hurt of wanting
The hurt of going on
The hurt of missing
The hurt is killing me
Turn my head
Off
Forever
Turn it off
Forever
Off forever
Turn it off forever
Ever blind
I just can't get enough of Karen Dreijer Andersson lately, drawn time and again to her projects The Knife and Fever Ray. There's a sweet spot I'm attracted to, a combination of utter weirdness, electronic tropical beats, and political ball-busting. The Knife's 2007 pre-recorded Swedish Grammy acceptance award video is classic "WTF is this?" behavior.
But you know? I think they've outdone themselves brilliantly this time. The Knife is set to unveil an opera written to celebrate the 150th publishing anniversary of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in September 2009. It'll be at the Royal Danish Theatre, no less. The BIG time people!
The Hotel Pro Form, a Danish performance organization, is producing. From their Web site:
The theatre group Hotel Pro Forma’s (DK) special form of beauty blends with The Knife’s (SE) electronic music and Hiroaki Umedas (JP) hip-hop-inspired choreography to form a new type of electro-opera based on the works of Charles Darwin. An opera singer, a pop singer and an actor singing in the tradition of Brigitte Bardot perform The Knife’s music on stage. Six dancers from ballet and modern dance merge with the singers and the newest technology in light and sound to give us an incredible image of our immense diversity and amazing similarities.
WHO'S GOING WITH ME? This is going to be better than a bajillion SXSWs. Not that I'm still bitter I missed another one. Nope.
One of my favoritest The Knife songs of all the awesomenest ones, "We Share Our Mother's Health" performed LIVE:
In case you missed it, I've previously written about The Knife here, and featured the Fever Ray video "If I Only Had a Heart" here.
We came down from the north
Blue hands and a torch
Red wine and food for free
A possibility
We share our mothers' health
It is what we've been dealt
What's in it for me?
Fine
Then I'll agree
Trees there will be
Apples, fruits maybe
You know what I fear
The end is always near
x2
Say you like it
Say you need it
When you don't
Looking better
Shining brighter
Than you do
x2
A picture by Mike Stilkey is truly worth a thousand words. I discovered this fucking amazing artist on the community blog yay!everyday, a delightful crowdsource of visual yumminess.
Check out Mike Stilkey's entire book sculptures series. By the way, this is the piece that made Mike Stilkey my latest, secret crush:
Rome, trains, a beautiful deaf girl, a handsome stranger. All these things remind me of another love story, another time, another place. And I will always wonder: what if?
http://www.ilovecut.com/works/102
A girl misses her train to Milan and is set to wait overnight in Rome until dawn. However, a chance encounter with a guy changes her plans and the night lights of the capital turn into the background to a tender love story. An extraordinary chemistry made of knowing glances and small gestures fills the few instants that separate them both from the sunrise.
Short film made with 4500+ still photographs. Shot with a Canon EOS 30D camera.
